The Austerity Thread

[gwEm]

The magnet swap thread has started me thinking about ways tone can be changed for free or very cheap. I thought it could be a good thing to discuss. I've put a vague mental limit of £15 pounds. I think all of these we've discussed already on the forum:

* Different type of strings, or even just a new set
* Try out some different picks
* Pickup magnet swap
* 'modern' / '50s' wiring
* Playing with pickup and pole piece heights
* Different pots and caps for the controls - quality brand or different values
* Wiring pickup in-between position in/out of phase
* Coil tap / series / parallel wiring for humbucker
* Telecaster 4 way switch
* Wax potting pickups
* Nice preamp input valve for your amp
* Parallel / serial speaker wiring
* Bolt-on neck "crack"
* A good 1/4" jack lead
* Steel saddles
* Steel trem block - affordable ones can be found

I'm sure there are some more ideas out there people have, maybe even some bargain pedals?

[Kiichi]

Love the idea! Here is what I got from the top of my head:

*DIY Pedals - especially the Zvex Super Hard on, which is super easy and effective
*You mentioned split wiring, but I need to, as always, add that PRS style splits are great and make that wiring more usable
*General setup - be it getting rid of fret buzz or raising the action to allow the guitar to breathe more, can make a difference
*Mixing up the pedal chain

[Skilpad]

* Try different bottle necks.
* Try the fingers instead of picks... Or random objects (like striking the strings with a pen, or other stupid stuff).
* If you use a digital multi-effects pedal, retry every possibilities or check for custom presets.

To easilly change your wiring configuration, you can use connectors instead of always soldering/unsoldering everything.

For DIY pedals, go "Design-It-Yourself". You can use test boards for experiment (or use LT Spice to simulate).

[Kiichi]

For DIY pedals, go "Design-It-Yourself". You can use test boards for experiment (or use LT Spice to simulate).

Oh yes, I just need some transistors (ok maybe I have some somewhere, but only silicon at best and I also want some germanium) and a bit of reading up on the basic idea of how fuzz pedals work and I am gonna stick a lot of things together. Already got the board and a lot of components ready =)

[Dave Sloven]

Locking bridge and tailpiece studs?

[Skilpad]

For DIY, there are many schematics on General Guitar Gadgets (http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/).
If you have a test board, you can also try to change some components values (or even circuit parts) before soldering. For easy experiment, replacing some resistors with trimmers could yet allow to reach a more personallized tone (like the perfect fuzz for your material and style).

[FELINEGUITARS]

slightly over your price limit - fit an earvana nut

[Kiichi]

For DIY, there are many schematics on General Guitar Gadgets (http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/).
If you have a test board, you can also try to change some components values (or even circuit parts) before soldering. For easy experiment, replacing some resistors with trimmers could yet allow to reach a more personallized tone (like the perfect fuzz for your material and style).

Yeah, got a testboard (the ones where you can just stick stuff in) and will use either trimmers or pots with alligator clamps. Can use the dual / precision pot technique for fine tuning the values. That should allow quick and easy work too.

When it comes to DIY pedal schematics there is one site which kicks all others asses for my money. http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.de/ Giant database and all aranged for stripboards. Easiest to do of all the things I have seen around. If you only got the schematic it is an extra challenge to transfer them to the board, but here you got the complete layout. Ace site for my money, highly recommended. Heck they even got a Juansolo circuit on there =)

[Philly Q]

Aluminium tailpiece (but probably not for <£15)

[Afghan Dave]

Aluminium tailpiece (but probably not for <£15)

Look under your bed + plug in a soldering iron & grab a screwdriver = 10 new custom guitars for Philly!  :)

[FELINEGUITARS]

Aluminium tailpiece (but probably not for <£15)

yes - nice upgrade but £30+
also locking studs too

[dave_mc]

I got my daphon sd1 clone for (IIRC) ~£13, does that count? It sounds pretty good :lol:

[Andrew W]

* A decent rag for cleaning off strings post playing (free?)
* String trees for Fender type guitars that buzz behind the nut and don't already have them fitted
* A sheet of shielding tape for inside the controls cavity (unless extra hum is part of your tone quest)

[Philly Q]

Aluminium tailpiece (but probably not for <£15)

Look under your bed + plug in a soldering iron & grab a screwdriver = 10 new custom guitars for Philly!  :)

Only about 8 now...... but fair point, nonetheless.

[juansolo]

There's quite a few effects you can make yourself for under £15. The SHO has been mentioned. There are a lot of fuzzez and distortions too.